Gravity Hurts
by Kagha
Summary: Songfic / A battle takes place in the skies of Karda Nui, as Toa Nuva and Makuta fight it out in the World That Feeds The World. Meanwhile, the mystery lengthens in the hives of Mutran... Orig. post date: 19/9/08


Lewa folded his wings onto his back and summoned a heavy spit of wind that rocketed him forward, just barely outracing the dragon of shadow energy thrashing behind him. Then stalactite ledge was coming in quick, and if the Toa of Air didn't do something, he would be caught between a rock and a hard place – literally.

Swinging around in mid-fall, the Toa of Air summoned the Hau Nuva and erected a spherical shield of pure force around himself. The bolt of shadow hit and imploded on impact, vanishing into nothingness. But Lewa was still descending at a more-than-uncomfortable speed. Switching his mask back to the Miru Nuva, he triggered its power and instantly stopped. Unfortunately, the abruptness of his halt thrashed him head-over-heels up through the air, his wings beating crazily, and he landed heavily against a rough wall of black stone that was the stalactite.

The Toa of Air dropped to his feet and grumbled. "Things are getting hard-rougher..."

_Tension is rising  
>Gravity hurts<br>Everything's falling apart_

Brushing the dust out of his wings, Lewa spat over the edge of the stalactite and steeled himself. In the distant skies, Pohatu was battling with a group of Shadow Matoran who were all too rapidly alternating between blasting him with bolts of shadow. At first, he could've easily defeated them, but then their speed began to increase and he couldn't deflect and counter while flying. He was at a downside, and Lewa knew it. About twenty bios to the east of the Stone Toa was Kopaka, firing spheres of pure light energy from his Midak Skybow at Makuta Vamprah, the only Shadow Master present as of right now.

Lewa leapt into the air, taking no time to increase his speed and shoot forward through the sky. Suddenly, a spear of shadow ripped by and he averted his head just in time to keep it from being ripped out of its socket. In that moment, his eye caught something: one of Pohatu's propellers had malfunctioned and the Toa of Stone was now reeling. The Shadow Matoran didn't hesitate and one swiped forward with his blade, cleaving a nice gouge in the Toa's shoulder, which he then after-blasted with a fist of shadow. The Toa of Stone cried in pain before plummeting backwards, helpless.

Swinging his head, Lewa saw that Kopaka had also been overcome, and was held now in the air by the clawed hand of Vamprah. Lewa cursed under his breath and squeezed his Air Saber.

_Choosing the right side  
>Choosing our faith<br>Choosing is what we must do  
>Everyone's counting on you<em>

The Toa of Air whipped around, using his elemental power to condense one of the clouds of mist hanging in space and throwing it swiftly at the Makuta. It struck Vamprah head on, sending one of the Makuta's wings reeling and himself flailing through the air. Kopaka glanced to Lewa, and the Toa of Air flicked his eyes over to Pohatu. Getting the signal, Kopaka created a bullet of frost and shot it towards Lewa, who summoned a horizontal cyclone to send the icy substance shooting towards the Shadow Matoran. The corrupted Matoran turned in surprise, but Kopaka had already frozen the snow-cyclone shut and left them in a prison of two-bio thick ice. As soon as it began to drop, Lewa noticed Kopaka flinch and then summon the power of the Miru Nuva, keeping the chamber aloft.

Pohatu was still not in control of his flight. His right shoulder was severely injured by the Shadow Matoran's attack, therefore his arm was hanging down limply, its spinning propellers threatening to saw his leg off. Luckily, the straps extending from that propeller connected to a harness and restrained the gauntlet-spinner from going any closer to his body. It was a convenient use for tools, but Lewa could awe at it given that blood was spurting from the Stone Toa.

Veering in mid-air, Lewa angled his wings and shot towards the Toa of Stone, swiftly catching him and leading him gently down to a ledge on the stalactite, where he told the Toa of Stone to rest.

"But-" Pohatu protested, but Lewa silenced him with a hard stare. The Toa of Stone shrugged as best as he could, before yelling in pain. "Me and Kopaka will ever-take care of this."

With that, Lewa turned, crouched, flared his wings, and shot into the sky.

_For freedom we rise  
>Learn to fly<br>Reach the sky  
>Legend will carry you<em>

The Toa of Air was ascending rapidly. He could see Kopaka soaring towards him as a newly recovered Vamprah was climbing back up to level and making sure his wings were in proper position.

"He's weak," Lewa pointed out. "It's our best chance to strike."

"He's four kios away," Kopaka said brusquely, "How will we reach there in time."

In that exact moment, Lewa thought he heard Pohatu saw something from below. The Toa of Air was about to turn and call out to ask, but suddenly found himself thrown across the sky at an enormous velocity. It was Pohatu's Mask of Speed.

_...thousands of miles  
>Take a stand<br>Hold the land  
>Make sure that everyone's<em>

Pohatu got to his legs, trying his best to ignore the pain throbbing in his right shoulder. Bringing his eyes across the sky, he saw that Lewa and Kopaka had reached their destination. He'd summoned his Kakama Nuva on them and sent them hurtling towards Vamprah, who were vulnerable as of now. They were locked in a wind, ice, shadow and metal clash, and even though the Toa benefited in numbers, it looked like an even match between them and the Makuta, it even looked like Vamprah could overcome them again.

_No__t on my watch,_ Pohatu said, drawing in a breath and narrowing his eyes. _Don't think I'm out of the fight just yet, Lewa. You've done your part... now let me do mine._ Shutting his propellers into drill-blades, the Toa of Stone leapt off the ledge and summoned the Miru Nuva on himself. Then, reaching up with his good arm, he activated his propeller to keep himself aloft while he switched masks to the Pakari Nuva.

_Sor__ry, Shadow Matoran village,_ he thought as he stuck his hand into the side of the stalactite and got a good grip. _But you're a blight, and I'm going to have to put you to a good use._

Draining out the energies of the Mask of Strength, he clenched his teeth and lifted. Even with the Great Mask, he could feel the enormous strain and weight of the stalactite on his arm, but he knew he could – and had to – do this. Exerting all of his natural strength into the energies of the mask, he pulled the gigantic stalactite out of the ground, far, far below, and hefted it like a spear. Turning his head, he saw Lewa, Kopaka, and even Vamprah had turned to look, stupefied. Then, before any of them could even saw "Karzahni", Pohatu reeled the stalactite back and threw it. It's sharp end crashed into the Makuta as Lewa and Kopaka frantically jumped out of the way. It flew for quite a bit until it vanished behind a cloud of mist and dug itself into the wall of the cavern.

_...ready to win  
>Find the speed<br>All you need  
>Team up for battle<em>

Lewa grinned. Angling his wings, he joined Kopaka in flying back to the Toa of Stone, who now relied on the Miru Nuva to keep aloft, since both his arms were out of order as of now.

"Nice move, Pohatu," he said, "But I don't think it'll keep him back."

"Of course not." Kopaka said tersely. "If anything, it only pierced a hole in his chest. He'll get out of it and shapeshift himself to fill that hole. Remember, it's not some sort of Rahi beast we're talking about here."

"Well, guys," Pohatu said, twitching his arm, which was the most movement he could leak out of it. "Could we go now? I'm kind of injured here, if you haven't noticed."

Lewa smiled. "All right. Team?" He said, reaching out his fist. Kopaka bumped it with his own, saying, "Unity."

"Duty." The Toa of Air said.

Pohatu reached up with his foot and clanked it against their fists. "Destiny. Now come on."

Kopaka sighed. Veering, he grabbed Pohatu by the waist and slung him over his shoulder. "Let's fly."

_We fly, fly...  
>We fly<br>Gravity hurts_

**ONE DAY LATER**

"You're all good now," Solek said, taking a step back from the Toa of Stone. "How'd you get that shoulder injury anyway? It was pretty deep – I had a hard time fixing it."

"Two words," Pohatu grumbled. "Shadow, and swarm."

"So they ganged up on you, eh?" Solek said, looking up to patrol the skies of any Makuta or Shadow Matoran.

"Yeah. And they were pretty good." Pohatu said. "You should've seen them. Swoop, slam, smash, crash, swash!"

"Swash?" Solek chuckled.

"Enough chatter." Kopaka interjected. "This is not fun and games."

"I know that all too well," Pohatu said casually – no bitterness or sarcasm in his voice. The Toa of Ice sighed, before flaring his wings and jumping out into the sky.

_Creatures keep coming  
>Reaching within<br>Stealthy they climb from the dark  
>Yeah yeah<em>

Makuta Antroz sat in his cave, his sightless eyes staring blankly ahead into the shadows he knew and controlled. _If only,_ he thought, _I could control them and remove them from my eyes._

Turning his head, he heard the shifting of armor and the clattering sound of claws touching crystal, and then a long exhalation. His unseeing gaze settled on the emerald-silver armored Makuta before him.

"Darkness, darkness, yes," Mutran hissed, his voice like that of a Matoran who was trapped in a cage for too long. "My creation, when it is done, will be the finest little monster you've ever seen."

"I did not come here to watch you create pets," Antroz snarled. He heard Mutran quietly scoff and knew the green Makuta rolled his eyes. "Now, give me the crystal."

"Yes, yes," Mutran said, reaching through a shelf and then handing Antroz a small, gleaming crystal.

_Searching for wisdom  
>Searching for truth<em>

Antroz let the message of the crystal fill his brain. He basked in the mental vision for quite a while before it came to an abrupt stop. The Makuta smiled evilly, before closing his hand and shattering the crystal. "I see..."

_Show us the things you can do_

Takanuva floated in the midst of the swamp, his eyes scanning the exotic terrain for anything of significance. A ball of pure light flashed around his hand, and he stretched the illuminating energy to fill in many of the shadowed areas that surrounded him. Then he saw it – a Toa of Water and a strange, phantom white creature attacking her.

_Maybe it's all up to you  
>Yeah yeah<em>

Takanuva narrowed his eyes and clutched his fingers tightly around the hand-size sundial he held, before angling his body and flying forward.


End file.
